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Tomato cages
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:10 pm
by grafted
I have some old concrete wire cages that I keep cutting off the bottom ring as they get older.
I decided to extend the height buy cutting some of them up and welding them together.
They ended up about 8 feet tall and look pretty good. I used 6013 1/16 at 40 amps and electrode negative, very carefully.
Some varieties of Tomato will come out the top of 8 foot cages.
Tom
Re: Tomato cages
Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 12:28 am
by ShaunBlake
Bet that was tedious! I'd love to see pics, and wish you'd done a vid. Did you weld every vertical bar? Or perhaps welded two circumferential bars? Please explain/inform!
Re: Tomato cages
Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 8:59 am
by GWD
I tried the same thing as the OP. In my case the welding was to close the circle of wire to make the cage rather than extend the height.
The 1/16 6013 didn't want to light up very well on the rusty wire. When it did it burned the wire off. Can't remember the setting but it was around 40A. Nothing seemed to work.
I finally used 3/32 6011 and more or less spot welded the overlapping ends of the wire. In some very rusted areas a short piece of wire was used to act as a bridge.
But I'm not a professional weldor...more of a farm weldor.
Re: Tomato cages
Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 6:49 pm
by grafted
ShaunBlake wrote:Bet that was tedious! I'd love to see pics, and wish you'd done a vid. Did you weld every vertical bar? Or perhaps welded two circumferential bars? Please explain/inform!
I welded each vertical bar, by overlapping them an inch and welding in between and the travel speed is fast.
I used an angle grinder to polish a good place to attach my grounding clamp and the top of the cage where I could get a good arc strike. I have already painted them black or I would take a picture. Maybe next time I will take a few photos. I used a stick or two of 6011 3/32 , but that is a little to low an amperage for 3/32. i believe having a good ground is key,
along with using electrode - on the 6013. I use E POS on some joints but it is easier to burn through. On occasion I would burn through, I would splice a piece of the old wire in its place. The electrode on NEG does cut down on penetration, which is helpful in this thin wire.
Tom